Having correct and consistent online business listings and gaining positive reviews in those listing venues are an absolute must for obtaining higher rankings in the search engines these days, especially for companies who provide ‘local’ services such as practitioners, contractors, attorneys, repair companies, etc, or who sell products locally, for example restaurants, auto dealers, etc. Continue reading
How to Add a Business to Google Local when the Street does not Exist on the Map
From time to time we have clients for which we need to create a Google+ Local listing for a business at a newly constructed location. Sometimes the new construction is located on a new street that does not yet exist on Google Maps.
In order to have a verified local business location on Google Maps, it is necessary to input the correct street address in the Google Local Business dashboard. One may also need a verification postcard sent to the location when phone verification method is not available. Continue reading
Removing Spam Google+ Local Listings & Fixing Hijacked GMM POIs
When you type in a search for a local service or product in Google, you would expect to see a list of various providers in the area returned in the search results. Sometimes, however, these results are hijacked or tainted by spammy looking local listings, which can cause issues for the other, legitimate, local businesses.
Some spam listings not only dilute the search results, but can also completely change the type of results that Google displays. If Google feels a particular search is a ‘branded’ term, such as a company’s name, it will return results focused more towards that particular company, such as it’s website with the corresponding G+ Local listing information attached to it and other relevant pages about that company below it (such as its LinkedIn or Facebook page or YellowPages or BBB listing.) Continue reading
Finding That One Local Business
Last month I wrote about the problem of finding local businesses, and, if you were that business, how to get yourself noticed in search engines.
It is one thing to look for a multinational company, or even the local franchise of a national brand. How do you find the local plumber or other local business, and find relevant results? How does that local business rise to the top of the SERP (search engine results page)? We are going to have to go hyperlocal. Hyper-what? Continue reading
Google vs USPS Mailing Industry Standard – Caused G+ Local Listing to be Deleted?
I came across an issue where I used the USPS mailing industry standard address of a company to create a new G+ Local listing, where the listing was verified by postcard PIN. Then a couple of months later, it vanished from Google completely after the owners received a phone call from a Google rep verifying their address information. Continue reading
How to Rate & Review Places in Google+ Local
Do I need to join Google+ in order to review a Google+ Local Places Page?
Yes, if you are already logged into a Google Account and you are not signed up for G+ yet, you are required to fill out some basic user info for your Google+ Profile.
If you click on the ‘Write a review’ icon on a Google Local Page, it pops up a window which states: “Before you can rate and review places in Google+ Local, you must join Google+.” Continue reading
Gain Reviews to Increase Your Google Places Listing Rank
It is one of my goals as a Milwaukee SEO consultant to help my clients’ websites appear on the first page of Google. The introduction of ‘local’ results, with Google Places business listings thrown into top 10 search results has added an extra element to our optimization goals to achieve higher 1st page rankings.
Continue reading
Google Plus and the +1 Button
What is Google+ ?
All the hype has been around Google+ lately. Some say that it could surpass the popularity of Facebook. Google plus is Google’s latest social network development that is similar to Facebook in which you can upload photos and write posts. One really special thing about Google Plus is that you can create what is called “circles.” You can separate your contacts into your own custom circles. For example, you can create a “business contacts” circle, and a “college friends” circle. There is no limit to the amount of circles you can create either. Privacy settings are said to be a lot easier than Facebook’s too. Continue reading
How to Write a Google Places Listing Review
Here are some instructions that you can use to help potential reviewers of your business in the process of writing a proper Google Places review:
- It would be best if the reviewer was to give both a star rating and a written review.
- Since the first 4-8 words (about 25-50 characters) of the review are bolded in the final product, it would be optimal if the person writing the review placed the best descriptive text at the very beginning of the review (as a sort of summary or synopsis.)
- The summary can then be expanded upon in the rest of the review.
- 2012 UPDATE: Google says that you can not have URLs/links in G+ reviews. (It won’t be published until they are removed.)
7 Deadly Google Places Sins
We highlighted the importance of Google Places listings for local businesses in a previous post. What we wanted to expand on, and didn’t highlight in our previous post was some things you may not know about when it comes to your Google Places listing that could make your listing ineffective and an open playing field for your competitors. Continue reading